Saturday, December 18, 2004

Sazman-e Mojahedin-e Enqelab-e Eslami & Behzad Nabavi

Iranian Political Factions Today: "Sazman-e Mojahedin-e Enqelab-e Eslami
(Organization of the Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution)
This organization was created in 1979, shortly after the revolution, from small Islamic guerrilla organizations, several of whose leaders had formerly been Marxists. The political ideology of members of this group today is similar to that of the Khat-e Emami groups. Recently representatives of this group and their student supporters have launched the bi-weekly newspaper Asr-e Ma. One of the leading figures behind Asr-e Ma is Behzad Nabavi, one of the founders of the Mojahedin-e Enqelab-e Eslami, who acted as chief negotiator for Iran during the discussions with US officials over the the fate of the American hostages and who also served as Minister of Heavy Industry. Behzad Nabavi and some of his younger student supporters have recently written articles in which they try to reconcile the Velayat-e Faqih or guardianship of the supreme jurisprudent with popular sovereignty in political decision making. The Sazman-e Mojahedin-e Enqelab-e Eslami supported Khatami's presidential candidacy."